New Mexico has a rocky gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
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